Douglas had been earning between £250,000 and £280,000 a year when she left the BBC in October 2008, according to figures obtained by MediaGuardian.co.uk under the Freedom of Information Act.

Radio 1's Andy Parfitt, Radio 2's Bob Shennan, Radio 3's Roger Wright and Radio 4's Mark Damazer were all shown to earn between £190,000 and £220,000 when the salaries of the BBC's 50 highest-paid executives were made public in June this year.

Radio 5 Live's recently appointed controller, Adrian van Klaveren, did not make the list of the top 50 highest earners covering the period for the 12 months to the end of March 2009.

Douglas's salary at the time of her departure put her in the same band as BBC1 controller Jay Hunt. This is a band higher than Hunt's BBC2 counterpart Janice Hadlow, who is on £220,000 to £250,000, the same level as the BBC3 controller, Danny Cohen.

Other figures obtained from an FoI request revealed that Douglas had claimed for £7,833.27 in hospitality expenses between November 2007 and October 2008, though nothing for taxis or travel costs.

In 2008/09 Damazer was the BBC's third highest spender on hospitality with £7,266.02, while Parfitt claimed £7,044.60.

In a statement signed by James Leaton Grey, the BBC's head of information policy and compliance, the corporation defended Douglas's salary.

"Lesley Douglas was one of the BBC's most high-profile senior leaders, with a remit that included running the nation's biggest radio station and managing the 'popular music' strategy for the whole BBC, including BBC Worldwide, as well as taking on major industry roles, such as vice-chair of the Radio Academy," Leaton Grey said.

She resigned from the BBC in late October, after the furore surrounding lewd messages left by Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand on former Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs's answerphone were broadcast on Brand's Saturday night Radio 2 show.

Brand also subsequently resigned, along with Radio 2's head of compliance Dave Barber. Ross was suspended without pay for three months, although he has now returned to presenting his BBC TV and radio shows.

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